Ready for another round of Samsung Galaxy S6 rumors? Polish website Android.com.pl revealed some interesting information about the upcoming flagship. According to an anonymous insider, the sixth-gen Galaxy S has a proprietary connector on its back, fashioned for connecting a new set of optional back covers that offer previously unseen, and rather advanced functionality.

The leakster has given a few examples of it - one cover measures the blood sugar level and syncs with the S-Health app, while another has an embedded monochrome E-Ink display for reading books or other information without wasting battery life. A third cover lets the Galaxy S6 become your personal fitness trainer, of sorts, connecting to different fitness machines (bikes, steppers and such) and syncing data to a relevant app. And a fourth cover is said to let you connect additional lenses to the GS6's camera. Reportedly, these are just a few examples of what Samsung employees have came up with. The functionality will be opened up to developers to try out their own ideas too.

This information jibes with an earlier account where a purported list of Galaxy S6 covers was uncovered, rich with non-traditional covers. We're still a little skeptical, though. On one hand, you can expect everything from South Korea. Everything! On the other hand, anyone armed with imagination and time to spare can come up with this modular case concept. Take the proverbial grain of salt, but don't ingest too much, because Samsung could really have something of that extent to surprise us with at March's MWC.

Six new features to expect from the Samsung Galaxy S6

Say hi to premium! The Galaxy S6 has already been tipped by various sources to come with a lot less plastic, and a lot more metal and glass for its chassis. Indeed, judging from leaked frame prototypes, the flagship is expected to employ much more metal in its build than the S5, and even the Note 4 or Samsung's new A-series. Whether or not this means a unibody with non-replaceable battery pack remains to be seen, but if indeed so, this might be a turnoff for a loyal Samsung fan or two.

The rumored dual-edged display for the Galaxy S6 Edge version with side-sloping panel might be more understated than the Note Edge solution. The sides will eventually be sloping much less here, in order to avoid the dual-edged panel affecting the grip ergonomics. You will be able to turn the right or left side off, too, depending on if you are right-handed or not, and there will be plenty of apps and features promised to take advantage of this intriguing new form factor.

A new, trim and slim TouchWiz interface is expected to debut with the Galaxy S6, putting an end to the general complaints about the feature-rich, but somewhat slow and inconsistent Samsung Android overlay.

Galaxy S6 is said to come with either Snapdragon 810 or Exynos 7 Octa, which are paired with Cat. 9 LTE modems, allowing for amazing top downlink speeds - as fast as 450 Mbps. The phone will eventually handle the 10MHz +10MHz +20MHz tri-band carrier aggregation, too. These are all theoretically possible speeds, of course, real-life scenarios should be much slower, and yet Korea is once again proving itself to be at the forefront of mobile data speeds worldwide, as you can see in the demo video of the Note 4 S-LTE here that uses an Exynos 7 Octa chipset, coupled with Cat. 9 LTE radio.

Given the proliferance of phones with optical image stabilisation, rumors point to Samsung employing an OIS module in the Galaxy S6 camera, be it a 16 MP or 20 MP unit, just like it did with the Note 4 with great results.

Apparently, Samsung will follow in the footsteps of Apple, Meizu and Huawei, introducing a touch-based fingerprint sensorm instead of the cumbersome swipe one it currently uses for the S5, Note 4 and Note Edge handsets. Touch is definitely better and faster than swipe, as you can see in our own video comparison below, especially on big-screen phones that require a lot of stretching down until you reach the home key, and its embedded finger scanner. As for the sensor usage functions, these are not expected to be expanded further from unlocking and verification purposes for now. The home button, however, is allegedly going to be larger, so that you can more comfortably use its touch-based finger recognition function.

Six new features to expect from the Samsung Galaxy S6

Say hi to premium! The Galaxy S6 has already been tipped by various sources to come with a lot less plastic, and a lot more metal and glass for its chassis. Indeed, judging from leaked frame prototypes, the flagship is expected to employ much more metal in its build than the S5, and even the Note 4 or Samsung's new A-series. Whether or not this means a unibody with non-replaceable battery pack remains to be seen, but if indeed so, this might be a turnoff for a loyal Samsung fan or two.

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 7:51 AM 10

Posts: 30496; Member since: Feb 05, 2011

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 8:35 AM 3

Posts: 5465; Member since: Apr 05, 2013

Not that many, but you never know with Samsung. They have a habit of trying to implement any feature they can think of.
Blood sugar level is very hard to measure without skin intrusion, there are some techniques out there, but to see it integrated in a backplate? Not so much.
E-Ink has been done before (Yota) and it's hardly a selling point.
Fitness integration, they would have to make fitness equipment as well, don't know if they do.
Only one plausible could be lenses. Since they already have Android camera's.
All in all I think this might be some leaked information from a brainstorm session where engineers go wild, but that's it.

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 2:29 PM 4

Posts: 5465; Member since: Apr 05, 2013

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 5:32 PM 1

Posts: 5465; Member since: Apr 05, 2013

Also different backplates with different functionality is hardly easy to use. What if I go to the gym, work out, want to sync my fitness info to my phone but also want to measure my blood sugar levels? I need to take every backplate with me, just in case I want this functionality.

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 10:25 AM 2

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 2:30 PM 0

Posts: 14967; Member since: Sep 25, 2013

Most of them. The Note 4 has a 16MB sensor, the S5 did too. So I expect it to simply go up for the next model, 20MP is logic progression.
Dual Edge sides have been confirm as fact and the device is being called the S Edge.
Lighter TouchWiz? There are already Note 4's and S5's running Android 5.0 with TW on top and if you watch those vids, you can see the UI is way faster than it is on the regular stock S5 and Note 4.
I don't see the interchangeable back covers with sensors in them, but it is a better option than having them all inside the phone, For one, you can just buy the one that fits what you do and that is better vs having them all in the phone sucking battery and they aren't being used at all. As we have seen on past Samsung models.

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 3:20 PM 1

Posts: 2931; Member since: Oct 08, 2012

posted on Jan 27, 2015, 7:51 AM 4

Posts: 343; Member since: May 21, 2013

samsung ceo : we need to find a way to overcome this obstacles
samsung management team : lets throw everything into wall and see what stick
samsung ceo : brilliant idea
samsung fans : this call innovation